Month: August 2009

Lessons learned from a Twitter contest

  1. Turn off email notifications on the main twitter account OR setup a filter
  2. Be more diligent about pruning followers/following
  3. There are some real CRAZIES out there!  Don't take it personally
Number three really got me down yesterday.  Someone misinterpreted something that was out there (spoke to them on the phone and STILL don't understand what they were SO upset about!).  I tried to ask what it was that upset them so and the only response was lawyer this, sue you that, "you wanna take me on?!?!?", and my favorite "anymore threats for me?" or something to that effect.  Now, if you know me you know I'm not threatening anyone.  I like my shit just so and therefore I don't mess with others' shit so they don't mess with mine.  That's my interpretation of the whole "do unto others" rule.  Anyway, it was really odd to truly not understand how to remedy the situation when I really wanted to.  I don't often run into someone that I can't understand their point of view.  Often I'm told there are factors you don't know or understand so stop trying.  Like a math problem where you aren't given all the variables, you can't (or shouldn't) try to account for the unknowns especially if there are too many (you don't know what you don't know).  Anyway, the very odd confrontation just threw me for a loop the whole day.  So the lesson is if you're going to do a campaign where you're interacting with the contestants (unlike a mail-in or email campaign), get ready for some surreal isht to happen!

What to do with @mcuban’s follower comparison site (really nice little tool for ppl new to Twitter)

I just grabbed this site from my Twitter stream and its EXACTLY what I need  – http://bit.ly/msiIf – its a little script that compares followers of multiple accounts.  Why does a business need this?  Well, when you're getting started probably the best way to figure out who to follow would be the people who follow accounts that you think are interesting.  For example, I can take a few of my competitors' twitter accounts, plug them in, and then see which ones of their followers are techies out there following multiple vendors and start to follow them.

Very simple, very cool.  Give it whirl!

Interesting little trip up on WP move

Moved a WordPress blog and this stupid s*** tripped me up for a couple hours.  Hate that!!!

Other Potential Problems

There are still some problems that you can run into after this point.  The first, and most common relates to your upload directory.  Often, after moving to a new url (or moving to a new host), you’ll start getting a permissions error when you try to use the image uploader.  This happens because of a field in the options table called “upload_path”.  The upload path specifies where to store your uploads (obviously), but when wordpress is installed, this is automatically generated  relative to your filesystem (not web) root.  The easiest way to fix it is to go to the Miscellaneous settings page (Under the settings menu on your dashboard), and change the value there to ‘wp-content/uploads’.

Social Media – for corporations its WAY more than marketing

Sm_triad

Life makes twists and turns constantly.  I do my best to keep up bit its hard.  I’m digging the hell out of Posterous because I can do blogs during the “space between”, as Dave Matthews sometimes talks about.

I’m working eyeball deep on social media stuff now and creating competitive differentiation at a corporate level.  To achieve this I’m actually looking at information flow and reacting to not only marketing situations but sales situations, how the information moves, and how social media technologies facilitate those interactions.  This “Social Media Triad” as the diagram shows, is my framework.  Right now I’m working on the theory that using social media externally to create a “Tribe” is great, but understanding information flow, internally, externally, and through niche sites, can help corporations actually operate better, react to situations better, and become proactive through a deeper understanding of users.

Information is flowing everyday in the outside world and at lightning speed.  Leveraging Twitter, Facebook, et. al. with very trusted connections it makes viral spreading very interesting.  If you leverage these ideas to get good feedback/product input, speed the corporate digestion and vetting process with internal social media technologies, and get influences in niche areas convinced that you are right, again via social media technologies, then you’ve improved the entire system of information flow.  The diagram above has arrows that represent the flow of information…

OK, now I’m just dumping a little bit out of my head.  I am working this through and I think it’ll make a real difference and make the company even more competitive than it is.  Wouldn’t it be great to be in touch with your “tribe”, process questions or misunderstandings they have very quickly, and then actually make their references to influencers in new accounts more reliable potentially even having them so invested in the brand they defend the company in small corners of the world that you didn’t even know they were talking about you?  Or do the analogous thing with customer input to new products (hardware or software)?  I, personally, think this is the ONLY way to approach social media for corporations – since “you are being talked about everywhere” according to Marketing GEniuses everywhere, then as a corporation you need to create a system that scales just as quickly to maintain your brand equity.

Then again, maybe I’m overthinking it.  🙂